The Somerset reporter. [volume] (Skowhegan, Me.) 1868-1909, 1887-05-04
FOOD BY SCIENTIFIC METHODS.


Te Possible Ecsults 10 lie Reached by
ChcinistrS-Ihc Malthusinn >pccter.
II is pleasant To turn from these wars
n. i rumors of wars and preparation for
Z hing to some Of the contemplated vic
tories II peace and science. The SieIacns
are a famous family Of German sayants
Who have made important discoveries III
several departments Of scientific research.
One Of the brothers invented the process
Of storing electricity. The possibilities OF
this invention are ncalculHble We are
only beginning to dimy realize its i'm
portance. DR.. Siemen, another brother,
has written work in which he boldly
states that we are on tho eve Of the pro-
duction OF food by scientific methods
without depending upon plant or animal
reproduction and growth He says that
chemistry, In conjunction with electro
technics will some day teach man to
make the food he now obtains from the
earth by combination OF the elements
Of which such food consists and which
nature supplies everywhere in the utmost
abundance. In other words, science, he
thinks, may at some future time lay the
Malthusian specter Of overpopulation and
diminishing returns from the soil.
Another suggestion Is that the recent
achievements OF science, with the aid OF
mechanical art, upon the field OF ap-
piled electricity, will restore to labor the
relative independence from capital it en-
joyed before the command of machine
power by the latter rendered competition
of the individual wage worker with me
chnnical production impossible. They will
also restore, he thinks, the greater exer
else Of individual intelligence in labor, in
u1upp Df the IpefI npirnl nprfnrmunga
compelled by the present organization of
industrial production He does not de
fine his meaning in detail on this point
but II is evidcuy from his other public ex-
prcssions on this favorite subject, that he
expects those results to be accomplished
by the great cheapening of mechanical
power, through its general distribution,
among the mass Of workers by electricity,
50 that they can free themselves from the
advantage capital has now over them by
exclusive command Of expensive machine
power
What vista this opens up before usi
II the chemist can take the elements of
the earth about us and produce whole
some and palatable food at very trfiing
cost how changed will he the whole life
of man on this planet Poverty will be
abolished. The surface of the globe can
then become one vast city. There would
be no more Strengthening Of animals for
food, nor toilsome labor In the wheat and
corn fields Al this may seem visionary;
but suppose an old Grecian or Roman
was told that some day men would travel
In safety Mt the rate of GO miles an hour;
that immense ships would plow through
the ocean Mt 90 miles IN hour, regardless
of wind or waves; Or more marvellous
still, that message could be flashed
under the ocean md an answer be re-
turned In n few moments The citizen of
the ancient world would have said that his
informant was lunatic; that such things
was prodigies that man could never hope
to accomplish. Tho telephone, through
which people can keep up n conversation
hundreds of miles apart, would have
seemed still more incredible to those who
lived in "A prescientiiic age. The possibili-
ties of scientific discovery are simply In
calculable. -Demorest's Monthly